Structural Characteristics of Paper • Grammage • Formation • Caliper • Porosity Grammage

GrammageGrammage:: MassMass ofof paperpaper perper unitunit areaarea GramsGrams perper squaresquare metermeter (g/m(g/m2))

•• MeasureMeasure area,area, AA •• MeasureMeasure massmass (weight),(weight), MM •• GrammageGrammage == M/AM/A Basis Weight

• Historically paper was sold in reams, usually packs of 500 sheets or a specified length and width (not universal)

Paper Grade Ream Size Writing and Printing 17 inches X 22 inches Newsprint 24 inches x 36 inches Paperboard 1000 feet2 • Basis Weight, ream weight, and substance are all names for mass or weight of one ream of paper (lb) Example of Basis Weight Label

88 1//2 xx 1111 Metric:Metric: 216x279216x279 mmmm SUBSTANCESUBSTANCE 2020 7575 g/mg/m2 WhiteWhite----LongLong 500500 sheetssheets Example

Copy paper Linerboard 2 Grammage = 75 gr/m2 205 gr/m

Ream = 120.6 m2 92.9 m2

Basis weight= 20 lb 42 lb Caliper

• Caliper is the thickness of the sheet • Usually measured in microns (10-6 meters) or mils (0.001 inches) • Often caliper is given as number of points – 1 point = 0.001 inch • Because of surface irregularity and compressibility of paper, the caliper depends on the method of measurement. Caliper Measurement

Soft-Platen Caliper

Hard-Platen Caliper Examples

Copy paper: 0.004 inches 4 mils or points 102 μm

42 lb linerboard: 0.012 inches 12 mils or points 293 μm Density and Bulk

• Apparent density of paper equals the basis weight divided by the caliper

DensityDensity == grammagegrammage kg/mkg/m3 calipercaliper

• Bulk is the inverse of paper density BulkBulk == calipercaliper mm3/kg/kg grammagegrammage Example

• Copy paper: (75 gr/m2, 4 mils) density = 0.74 gr/cm3 • Linerboard: (205 gr/m2, 12 mils) density = 0.67 gr/cm3 Porosity

Porosity is ratio of pore volume to total volume

V −V ρ φ = f =1− f V ρeff Formation

• Pattern of dense and light areas in the sheet • Small-scale distribution of mass in sheet • Visual or optical uniformity

FormationFormation IndexIndex == coefficientcoefficient ofof variationvariation ofof massmass distributiondistribution

COV = (standard deviation) / mean Index of 5% is good 25% is quite bad Formation Examples Number of Fibers in a Sheet

BW = Nω f l f BW = grammage of fibers N = number of fibers BW per unit area N = ω f l f l f = coarseness of fibers l f = length of fibers

Say fiber length is 2 mm and coarseness is 0.2 mg/m 60 For BW=60 gr/m2 N = 10002 =150x106 0.2× 2